Restructuring for Impact: How NACADA Positioned Its Governance, Operations, and Membership Experience for a Stronger Future
Executive Summary: NACADA Organizational & Operational Assessment (2022–2023)
Client: A leading international association with 13,000+ members dedicated to excellence in academic advising in higher education.
Engagement: A comprehensive organizational assessment conducted by Bostrom Consulting from October 2022 to October 2023.
The Challenge
Our client reached a critical inflection point driven by rapid membership growth and post-pandemic pressures. The organization faced four core issues: governance complexity with overlapping roles and unclear decision-making; widespread staff burnout and low morale; inconsistent policy application; and evolving member expectations around professional development and advocacy.
The Approach
Bostrom Consulting employed a multi-phase discovery process including focus groups, interviews, document reviews, and a membership-wide survey with over 2,000 respondents. This informed targeted recommendations across four areas:
- Governance restructuring — merging the Board and Council into a single governing body with clearer leadership pipelines
- Volunteer pathways — standardizing roles, streamlining advising communities, and introducing micro-volunteering
- Executive Office culture and operations — reorganizing staffing, improving communication, increasing leadership accountability, and upgrading technology (CRM, website)
- Member education & advocacy — aligning programming to member-identified needs and building a long-term advocacy initiative for the profession
Key Results
- Improved staff climate under new Executive Director leadership
- Governance merger and nominations reform underway
- Member programming refocused on highest-value offerings (conferences, webinars, skill-based tracks)
- Technology modernization initiated
- Net Promoter Score of 51 (rated “excellent”), confirming strong member trust
Core Takeaways
Organizational culture must be stabilized before strategic initiatives can succeed. Simplifying governance structures, grounding programming in data, and championing advocacy for academic advising are the pillars of their path forward.
“The Organizational Assessment from Bostrom, which I received in my first days as Executive Director, accelerated my leadership by at least five years. Its report and recommendations have been invaluable and have served as a clear road map for our organizational evolution and success. I carry it with me and refer to it often as a comprehensive guide and progress check.”